


Effulgence

by T Verano (t_verano)



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Community: sentinel_thurs, M/M, Sentinel Thursday, Spirit Animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 13:24:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19831135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: Goings on under the full moon.





	Effulgence

**Author's Note:**

> written for Sentinel Thursday challenge 631 "full"
> 
> Apparently, they had a sale at Costco on stylistic excess and unnecessary and pedantic words and I couldn't control myself. :-)

The clearing simmers with silver light, knee-high grasses catching the flood of moonlight as the night air breathes in the stillness. Breathes slowly. Quietly. Expectantly. 

A blade of grass rustles faintly against its neighbor. And again; the barest sound. The moon is an ivory disk pinned high in the open bowl of midnight sky above the clearing. 

Full moon, fulgent moon. Numinous. And watchful, waiting.

The encircling trees and vines seem to hold nothing more than silence in their formless, blue-black depths. Silence and darkness.

The night air breathes. Slowly. Quietly. Expectantly. 

A fist-sized flutter, moon-colored, breaches the edge of the clearing and begins a swooping, looping zigzag a foot above the top of the shimmering grasses. 

At the far side of the clearing, two glowing eyes appear.

Appear, and focus: from within the shadowed density of a tangle of low-hanging branches, the fiery gaze locks onto the moon-drunk flight of the moth.

No. Locks onto what's _following_ the moth, padding below the fluttering wings in an earthbound echo of the moth's erratic path. Moonlight frosts the wolf's shaggy gray fur. Tall grasses brush the sides of its chest as it moves; they dip and sway and recover, hiding and revealing in swathes of silver and shadow. 

Revealing and hiding. The eyes across the clearing burn more hotly. 

The moth flutters higher. Pausing, the wolf lifts its head to the sky, nose pointing up towards the siren circle of moon. Lifts its head, its blue eyes shining; bares its throat, and _laughs._ Laughs silently, its mouth wide in a grin, its tail a blur of joyful motion. 

And then it leaps. A laughing snap of jaws a foot away from the moth, a return to earth, a spin, another laughing leap and another: a playful pursuit the wolf clearly has no intention of winning. 

Across the clearing the watching eyes have vanished. The barest suggestion of movement arrows outward from the trees, stirring the grasses no more than would a moonstruck sigh. 

Or something very, very good at hunting. 

The wolf leaps towards the moth.

Two yards away, the big cat gathers itself in its low crouch, waiting. 

The wolf lands, starts to leap again. 

The jaguar pounces. 

========================

Jim pounces. Laughing, Blair tries to roll away but gets tangled in the sheets.

========================

Unaccompanied, the moth flutters towards the far edge of the clearing.

Behind it, the clearing fills with teasing yips, mock growls, snatches of rumbling purrs; with the swirl of moonlit grass as jaguar chases wolf and wolf chases jaguar, with blurs of black fur and gray, with pouncings and cuffings, leapings and rollings. With _play._

========================

Inside the clearing, the wolf and jaguar play. Outside the clearing, the jungle waits. 

========================

The moon is an ivory disk framed in the panes of the skylight. Beneath it, the loft is filled with the sound of laughter, of teasing voices and murmured suggestions. Of skin sliding against skin. Of purposeful, concerted movement. Of action and reaction.

========================

Outside the loft, the world waits.

========================

Moonlight slants across Jim's fingers as they trace a slow path down Blair's hip, over Blair's hand where it rests against Jim's chest. 

Their breathing slows. 

Blair mumbles something. Jim chuckles. 

Soon, they'll shift to lie fitted together back to front. Jim's arm will slide under Blair's to wrap across his chest. He'll angle his head to nuzzle Blair's neck. Blair will wrap his palm around Jim's wrist and slide his thumb gently back and forth across the back of Jim's hand. He'll mumble something again. Jim's arm will tighten its hold and Jim will smile and press his lips against the side of Blair's neck.

They'll fall asleep. 

Outside the loft, the world waits. Inside, the night belongs to the moon.


End file.
